Flying and Falling In Love
by draco's annie
Summary: It started as a holiday get together and ended with loveRon invited his friends around for the Christmas holidays and Charlie was going to be in town. Little did he know that Hermione playing Quidditch with them in the back orchid would lead to what it di


**Flying and Falling in Love**

_**Author's Note:** This story was in response to a challenge posted by such and such and is dedicated to my follow writing friend Kei or, as she is better known here, keisainter. Thanks for the idea of the Hermione and Charlie ship. You have been pushing me to finish it so you could read it, so here is it. And be thankful, I slept in and had to meet Lauren in the city an hour later because I was up late finish this. _

_Have fun reading people!_

Ron and Harry went up the stairs to their dormitory after Quidditch practice. "You did well tonight mate" said Harry patting Ron on the back. Ron didn't think he did well at all. He had let in five easy ones.

"But Harry, that one Ginny got past me… I should have saved it," he made out to grab the quaffle with his muddy robes.

"Stop beating yourself up about it, its okay, you're only human." _He is like this after every practice_ Harry thought to himself. "You're too hard on yourself. As long as you save the ones that count in the game, you don't need to worry. And the more you worry about what you are doing the worse it's going to be." They reached the dorm door and Harry opened it. "Just relax Ron."

Harry flopped down on his bed and starts to change out of his dirty gear. Ron fell backwards on to his bed, head automatically reaching the pillow. He closed his eyes and images of quaffles going past him haunted his thoughts. Then he felt something land on his stomach. He opened his eyes to an owl shoving an envelope in his face. He relieved the bird of the letter and it flew off. It was addressed to him in what looked like his brother Charlie's writing. He wondered what his brother could want. Probably to find out if he was doing the family name proud and not getting into too much trouble. Charlie was a great bloke when he was actually around.

He opened the letter and read:

_Dear Ron and friends,_

_How's your last year at Hogwarts working out for you so far? Hopefully it is all study and a bit of Quidditch here and there. Nothing you can't handle eh, especially Hermione. And how is she going by the way? And I can't forget Harry either. Anyway, getting to the point, I plan to be at home for the holidays. It will be nice to see you guys again. Don't forget to invite your friends Ron, will you? And ask mum first (although, I doubt she'd say no). Well, I must go. Lunch break is over and the dragons are getting restless. See you all soon,_

_Charlie_

After he had finished reading he put the letter down and got out of his own dirty gear. When both he and Harry were in clean clothes they went down to the common room to find Hermione. Harry had read the letter and was definitely going to the Burrow for Christmas. He would have gone anyway. Christmas at the Burrow was always great. Way better than at the Dursleys.

They found Hermione tucked in a corner with her school books stacked around her. It took Harry and Ron a few minutes to move enough books so they could sit down. It was only until they finally did that Hermione looked up from her parchment.

"Can I help you?" Hermione asked with a half pleasant, half suspicious look on her face.

"We were just wondering if you had any plans for the Christmas holidays" Harry answered her.

"Not really, just family dinners and such." As she was talking she rolled up her parchment with her finished essay.

"How about coming over to the Burrow?" Ron asked, "You can bring your family too if you want. I'm sure mum wouldn't mind."

"I'm sure my parents would be happy to. They are quite fascinated about the magical world. And our parents have seemed to get along well before. Sure, why not."

"Good, because Charlie just sent me this letter and he is going to be there. He mentioned you somewhere"

Hermione tried to hide her excitement. She always took a great liking to Ron's brothers. The older ones in particular; they were more mature and were always willing to talk to her and answer her questions about life after Hogwarts.

"Really?" she asked controlling herself. "May I see?"

Ron handed the letter over and Hermione read it. Her name looked good in Charlie's writing she decided to herself.

They spent the rest of the night talking about what they would do on the holidays at the Burrow before going to bed.

---

After Charlie's letter, Christmas could not come fast enough. Everyone was excited when they were getting on the Hogwarts Express to go back to King's Cross Station. Harry was going straight to the Burrow with the Weasleys because he knew the Dursleys would not want to see him this soon. Hermione was going home first and then planned to sleep over a few nights before Christmas day.

The day before Christmas Eve was when Hermione arrived. She told Mrs. Weasley that her parents would be coming around for Christmas dinner after they visited all the relatives. The others had all been up stairs when she arrived and when she had finished speaking to Mrs. Weasley she heard people running down the stairs.

Ginny was first to greet her with a big hug and a smile. "Hermione, you gotta come up and see Fred and George's latest invention for their shop."

"Umm, I don't think I'll have to" she replied as George came around the corner with a white fluffy dog in his arms.

"How are you going Hermione?" he asked as the dog changed into a black and white cat while sitting still in his arms.

"I'm fine thank you. What is that thing?"

"That," said Fred "is our latest invention. Catdog we call it."

"Very original," Hermione commented sarcastically.

"I'd like to see you come up with a better name then" Fred challenged

Harry's voice came next "I wouldn't be so smart about that Fred. You know she will."

"Thanks Harry. How are you?" she inquired

"I guess I'm all right. Can't complain, I love it here."

"Yeah, he is practically one of us" proclaimed Ron from behind Harry on the stairs.

"So we all here then?" she asked

"No, Charlie is in the back with dad. Fixing the tables for lunch" Ginny replied. "You should go out and say hello."

Ron called from the stairs "and while you're at it you ask Charlie if he wants to play with us. Harry and I are going to get our brooms and we'll meet you out there Ginny."

Ginny just rolled her eyes. Hermione decided she didn't want to ask about how annoying the two boys had been in the past couple of days. They were bad enough when they were at school with their Quidditch and now they wanted to play at the Burrow. You'd think they would get sick of it, but ah well. "Come on," said Ginny and she grabbed Hermione's arm, leading her outside.

Hermione didn't know where Fred and George went off to, but their Catdog was following at her's feet. _I probably smile like Crookshanks_ she thought to herself. She hadn't brought her cat to the Burrow this time. Her mum had grown attached to it over the few days it was at home and Crookshanks had not wanted to part. Hermione wasn't complaining though, he could be a real handful sometimes.

When they where outside, they found Mr. Weasley extending the family table and Charlie configuring a very comfortable looking futon for each side of the table and an armchair for either end. He looked to be very talented with his wand and Hermione's eyes even wandered to the arm that was waving it. His muscles tensed as he moved it and Hermione didn't really want to look away.

"Arthur, don't you think that is a bit too long dear?" Mrs. Weasley had followed them outside to check that her husband wasn't going overboard. Her voice distracted Hermione from what Charlie was doing and she looked around to see that the table Mr. Weasley had been lengthening was now long enough to fit about twelve people on each side.

Mr. Weasley must have gotten over excited with want he was doing because he soon shortened it to a nice length that would fit five nicely on each side.

"I'm done dad" announced Charlie and he put his wand in his jeans pocket. Hermione hadn't seen him in jeans before. He usually wore his leather pants, but she wasn't complaining. He looked good in both. And the T-shirt he was wearing looked pretty tight across his chest.

Ginny noticed her best friend starring at her older brother a little dreamy. She didn't think it would be a good idea for Charlie to see so she brushed passed Hermione, walking towards her brother and in front of Hermione so he was out of her line of sight. When Ginny looked back it had seemed to have done the trick. She turned back to her brother and spoke.

"Hey, the boys wanna go play quidditch over in the orchid and they were wondering if you wanted to join us?"

"Since I'm done here I don't see why not" replied Charlie. Hermione noticed his voice was a little deeper than Ron's was. She walked over next to Ginny. "Oh, hello Hermione, didn't know you were here already"

"I didn't get here that long ago actually" she replied.

"You going to come and play some quidditch with us?" he asked brightly

"I don't think so."

"And why not?" Ginny questioned

"You know I don't like playing that much" retorted Hermione

"Why's that?" asked Charlie "Can you ride a broom?"

"Yes, but I'm not very good and I don't have one here anyway" Hermione tried to get out of it.

"That's all right. I'll teach you and you can ride on my broom with me. Once you get confident enough I'll use dad's old broom" Charlie offered.

"Oh, I don't know…" said Hermione with a look on her face that told Ginny she really wanted to take the offer but didn't know whether it would be worth it.

"Come on Hermione," Ginny encouraged her, although she didn't really like the idea of her being on a broom with her brother, it would be good to see her play for once.

"You don't want to answer all dads' questions about Muggles do you?" Charlie asked and that was all it took.

"Fine, you can count me in" she conceded as the boys walked out of the house.

"Count you in for what?" asked Ron

"She is playing with us, little brother" Charlie answered him.

"How'd you manage that?" enquired Harry "She never wants to play with us."

"Well, I'm allowed to change me mind" stated Hermione before Charlie could answer him and it was left at that as she started walking towards the orchid. Ron and Harry looked at each other and then followed with everyone else.

In the clearing Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fred and George mounted their brooms and took off into the sky. Charlie remained on the ground with Hermione as he made a few adjustments to his broom.

"Ready?" he asked her when he was finished waving his wand.

"I guess so," she sighed and mounted the broom as Charlie had. She sat in front of him. She hadn't been on a broom from a long time and yet she felt comfortable where she was, with Charlie behind her.

"Okay," Charlie spoke, "Now just bend your knees and push off hard from the ground on the count of three. One… Two… Three" and they were off the ground.

The others were already throwing the makeshift quaffle around between them and had set out the goals at either end of the clearing. The goals were just marked gaps between the trees. Fred noticed that Hermione and Charlie had decided to join them and whistled for everyone to stop and come in so they could pick the teams.

"All right ladies and gentlemen, who's on whose team?" announced Fred

"Well," Ginny piped up "I think it would be fair if you two" she pointed to the twins "went on separate teams"

"Fine" said Fred happily. "Shall we toss for the first pick at who we want on our team George?"

"Only fair" agreed George and he took out a knut with one side red, "red or gold, Fred?"

"Red" replied Fred and George tossed it into the air and caught it on the bristles of his broom.

"Sorry, gold. I have first pick and I choose…" George looked around thinking, "…Charlie and Hermione"

"Fine then" said Fred "I choose Ron"

"I'll have Harry" said George confidently

"Looks like you're with me Ginny" said Fred. "Don't think he knows what he is missing out on, but that's his bad luck."

Fred's team started with the quaffle seeing as they had lost the toss. Charlie asked Hermione if she wanted to steer the broom and he'd handle the quaffle. She was fine with that.

Ginny got the first score and Fred rubbed it in George's face. Charlie told Hermione to fly down so he could get the quaffle. When he picked it up he whispered his plan in her ear.

"Okay, what I want you to do is get us over to the right so we can make a pick pass to Harry and then dart back through Ginny and Fred so Harry can pass the quaffle back and I'll let you take a shot at getting it past Ron."

Hermione nodded and did as she was told. The pass went clean to Harry and he headed for Ron. Hermione steered the broom between Fred and Harry, then around Ginny so Harry now had a clear pass to Charlie. Charlie signalled for it and Harry passed.

Hermione put her hand out behind her and Charlie gave her the quaffle and half took over the steering. Ron wasn't expecting Hermione to have the quaffle and by the time he noticed it come out of her hand it was too late. They'd scored.

"Take that Fred" George shouted as Harry came over to give them all a high five.

"Nice work Hermione" Charlie whispered in her ear

"But it was your plan" argued Hermione

"You pulled it off"

"With your help" Hermione continued but Charlie wouldn't let her win. "Don't be so modest. You'd be good enough to be by yourself from now on"

"You really think so?" asked Hermione astonished

"I wouldn't say it if I didn't mean it Hermione" he continued to whisper in her ear and it sent a shiver down her spine. His voice was very reassuring.

"Time out guys" Hermione called as Ron came up with the quaffle and was about to pass to Fred. "Charlie just wants to get another broom" she explained as everyone was looking at her.

They landed and Charlie hopped off. He took the charms off his broom so it was back to normal and summoned his dad's old one from the brooms cupboard. He mounted it and he and Hermione kicked off together.

Meanwhile the others had been passing the quaffle between themselves again. "Ready" declared Hermione when Charlie and her were back in the air.

"Good, let's go" said Harry

"Wait, now the teams are uneven" Ron pointed out.

"Don't worry about it Ron" said Fred confidently. "We'll beat them easy"

"That's what he thinks" Charlie whispered with a sly tone to Hermione. She giggled and then flew off.

The next few attempts at the goals came from Fred and Ginny and were all stopped by George. Ginny stole the quaffle off Harry a few times but Charlie stole it back and gave it to Hermione to have a shot at getting it past Ron again. Ron was ready for them this time and they didn't get passed, but Charlie had another plan to change that. He called Harry and Hermione over while Ron was fetching the quaffle that had deflected into the trees.

"Okay, now that Ron is on to Hermione's shots I want you to take a few Harry and then I'm going to take George out of keeper so he can have a few. But, the trick will be to make Ron think that Hermione has the quaffle. You should be able to handle that shouldn't you Hermione?"

"If you think I can" Hermione said with little confidence in herself

"Of course you can" Harry encouraged and got Hermione to smile.

"That's what I like to see" said Charlie smiling back. Hermione couldn't take her eyes off him, his smile made his eyes shine. He winked at her and then flew away. She then noticed that Harry had already gone and the quaffle was back in play.

It didn't take long for the plan to take effect and George's team to be up 50-10. Ron was getting frustrated which made things worse for his team as he let more in while Fred and Ginny couldn't get any passes past Charlie.

George passed the quaffle to Hermione and she pretended to pass it to Harry who was near the right goal and then went for the left. Ron didn't realize Harry didn't have it and Hermione scored. 80-10

"Nah, that's not fair!" Ron whinged

"It's plenty fair" replied George

"No its not and I've had enough anyway" he grumbled and flew down to land under them.

"But mum hasn't even called as for lunch yet" yelled Fred at him

"I don't care, I don't want to play anymore" Ron yelled back and started walking back to the house.

"Looks like you guys win" conceded Fred and headed back to the house too.

"Yes!" cheered Hermione and gave each of her team mates high fives before flying a lap around the clearing. When she got back George and Charlie were on the ground.

"Ginny and I feel like staying out here a bit longer but the others wanted to go inside." Harry explained

"I think I'll head back inside then and leave you two to it. I think that was enough for one day anyway" and she headed for the ground and back inside the Burrow.

---

In the afternoon, Fred and George decided to play around with their Catdog in the front yard to see how it reacted to gnomes in the garden and different food they had made for it. Ron had followed them to see if he could help and also to get away from Harry and Ginny who were teasing him about being a sook for walking off in the middle of the game just because he was being beaten by a girl.

Hermione was sitting in the lounge room with Charlie talking about his days at Hogwarts and what it was like after he left Hogwarts.

"I originally planned on becoming a professional Quidditch player but then an ad in the Daily Prophet about dragon handlers caught my eye one morning. I thought it might be a good change from studying as Quidditch would have been and I'd always had a fascination for dragons. It also gave me an opportunity to travel, which I had wanted to do for a while" Charlie explained quite happily to Hermione.

"Of course, mum didn't like the idea at first but she hadn't like the Quidditch one either and after a few little talks and a couple of argument she came round. Do you know what you want to do after this year?" he asked

"I have no idea. There are so many things I'm good at and so many things I could do" Hermione told him honestly. "And I haven't found anything that I don't think I might get bored of after a few years."

He laughed and she laughed too. It was funny, but was still true. "Don't worry. You will find something eventually" he promised her.

"Yeah, that's what everyone keeps telling me" she sighed. There was silence for a moment and then Hermione spoke again. "So, tell me more about your job"

"Well, the dragons I work with are beautiful creatures. I had to have a fair bit of training to learn how to they typically behave and that sort of thing. But I tell ya it was worth it. If you remember the four we brought over for the Tri Wizard Tournament, they were one of my toughest jobs. Usually I work in a protected area for a few hundred dragons to roam in the mountains of Romania. It's mostly trying to keep the Muggles from seeing them and from then wandering out of the area. Most of them know where they can and can't go but there are always a few babies that like to search around the place."

"Sound like you love your job" Hermione commented

"I do and I also have a few scars from it. You aught to see this one" and he pulled up the sleeve on his right arm to show his right shoulder. He beckoned her over to take a closer look. On the top of his shoulder blade was a couple of, what looked like, a couple of cats scratches.

"See that" he continued as Hermione admired the scar, "that taught me never to turn my back on a hungry baby dragon." Hermione laughed and he rolled his sleave back down. Hermione then sat on the chair next to him.

"And that same dragon a couple of months later decided it liked me and left another mark for me to remember her by." This time he pulled up the left leg of his jeans. On the outside of his calf there was a burn scar that looked a little bit like a love heart.

"Aww, that's cute" smiled Hermione

"Yeah, you say that now. But if you had seen it before you wouldn't have said that" Charlie said charmingly. Hermione gave a little chuckle and traced a finger around the scar. Charlie watched her closely and thought to himself. _She is so mature for her age and she's beautiful. Her touch is so soft._ She finished tracing the scar and placed her hand back of her own leg. _No, don't stop_ thought Charlie. He looks into her caring brown eyes. She looked back into his for a few seconds, and then looked away and out the window.

Mrs. Weasley came in to the lounge from the kitchen to announce that dinner was ready and Bill and Fleur were already in the back yard with the others. _Saved_ thought Hermione and she got up and headed outside. Charlie watched her leave before he got of the couch himself and joined everyone at the table outside.

---

"We all want to fall in love. Why? Because that experience makes us feel completely alive. Where every sense is heightened, every emotion is magnified, our every reality is shattered, and we are flying into the heavens. It may only last a moment, an hour, an afternoon. But that doesn't diminish its value. Because we are left with memories that we treasure for the rest of our lives" Hermione quoted the passage to herself. She had read it in a book somewhere and the days events must have triggered the memory.

She lay in the bed next to Ginny, who was sound asleep, and spoke to herself. She couldn't sleep with all the thoughts running through her head. The first time she had met Charlie her heart had noticed him but her head kept telling her that he was too old for her each time he had popped into her mind.

Now the age wasn't that much of an issue. It was only six years and other girls had settled for men where there was a bigger age gap. No, age defiantly wasn't an issue. So what was stopping her from having this dream? Was it the fact that she had feelings for her best friend's oldest brother? She loved Ron, but only as a friend, nothing more. But was it so weird to have feelings for his brother? No, Ron would be happy for her. He was happy enough with Harry and Ginny.

She turned from lying on her back to her side, hugging her pillow to her ear. She saw Ginny sleeping peacefully with her covers moving with her body as she breathed. Nope, she wasn't going to get to sleep like this. She needed something to settle her and get her mind of Charlie.

She hoped out of bed and put her fluffy purple slippers on. They matched her purple pyjamas with pale yellow love hearts and crescent moons. She opened the door and walked down stairs, past the room in which Charlie was sleeping and into the kitchen.

She found the milk and poured herself a glass. She drank some and looked out the window at the full moon. "What am I going to do?" Hermione whispered to herself. "Each time I was with him he seemed to get closer and closer. Although the time we spent on the broom was pretty close, uncomfortable at first, but when he got off it felt lonely. Why do I have to pick up things so easily?"

She drank some more of her milk and started whispering to herself again. "He has a pretty good body and his voice"

"What about it?" The voice she heard came from behind her. She put her glass down and turned to find Charlie standing in the door way. _Dam him_she thought to herself. He was only wearing a pair of loose navy shorts and he had a pretty well built upper body.

"Nothing" Hermione said trying to stay calm but not blinking.

He tried again. "Who were you talking about?"

"No body in particular" She was finding it difficult to look at his face and she knew he would think she was lying. It wasn't half obvious she was talking about some, but she didn't know how long he had been standing there. She decided to ask. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough" he replied. i _Great, /i _ she thought, i _he wants to play does he. /i _

"So why aren't you tucked up in bed? And aren't you cold?"

"Couldn't sleep and no, I'm not cold. You're trying to change the subject though. Good thing I know you were talking about me"

"Oh really? What makes you so sure?"

"The way you looked at me when you saw me and the way you're talking"

"You have no idea, do you?"

"Neither do you"

Hermione smiled and Charlie walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of milk. Hermione watched him and when he put his empty glass next to hers he started to talk again. "Are you going to finish the rest of your drink?"

"Yes" she answered and picked up her own glass that was half full. Charlie watched her silently until she finished and placed it beside his glass. Then she asked "Why couldn't you sleep?"

"All I could do was think about this beautiful, bright woman that was out of my league" he answered honestly. Hermione put her head down. She knew she didn't have a chance against whomever it was Charlie was talking about and she couldn't look at him without showing some emotion. She felt a hand on her arm and then a pair of lips came down on her head, kissing it softly.

She raised her head to find him standing in front of her and his hand where she felt it on her left arm. He smiled at her and then she realised the woman he was talking about was her. She smiled back at him and her cheeks turned a rosy pink.

He leaned closer and kissed each of her pink cheeks. They both turned red and Hermione closed her eyes. She didn't understand this. Was she dreaming or was he for real? She pinched her leg but she didn't wake up and now it hurt. It wasn't a dream, so he must be for real.

Charlie's mouth brushes against hers as he moved his arms around her body to hold her in a warm embraces. She pressed against his heated lips and moved her own arms around his waist, eyes closed.

He pulled away. "Maybe she wasn't out of my league after all" he grinned. Hermione loved the feel of his warm chest against her and lent her head on it. After not being able to sleep, she could have rested here forever.

_**Author's Note:** Well, that's the end. Hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading and I'd love to read your reviews. Draco's Annie_


End file.
